Euston Grove Press. After the Great Exhibition in 1851, the famous Crystal Palace was dismantled, then moved to Sydenham. The glasshouse was expanded and set within a beautiful 200 acre, fountain-filled pleasure park. It re-opened in 1854. The Crystal Palace Company published a series of guides – official handbooks – describing the park’s themed courts, special features, and art and sculpture galleries. These helped visitors interpret key features. They also provided background information. The effect was to add an air of authenticity to the visitor’s experience.
Euston Grove Press is working to reproduce all 15 of the guides published to support visitors in Crystal Palace and Park. Our “Crystal Palace Guides” offers facsimiles of the original handbooks.
For detailed information on the “Crystal Palace Guides” page.
| Series | Author | Title | ISBN |
| Crystal Palace Guide 1 | Samuel Phillips | Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park | 9781906267094 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 2 | Samuel Phillips | Portrait Gallery of the Crystal Palace | 9781906267100 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 3 | Owen Jones | Alhambra Court in the Crystal Palace | 9781906267063 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 4 | Matthew Digby Wyatt and John Burley Waring | Byzantine and Romanesque Court in the Crystal Palace | 9781906267131 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 5 | Owen Jones and Joseph Bonomi | Description of the Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 6 | George Scharf and Owen Jones | Greek Court Erected in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 7 | Matthew Digby Wyatt and John Burley Waring | Italian Court in the Crystal Palace | 9781906267155 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 8 | Matthew Digby Wyatt and John Burley Waring | Mediæval Court in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 9 | Austen Henry Layard | Nineveh Court in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 10 | George Scharf | Pompeian Court in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 11 | Matthew Digby Wyatt and John Burley Waring | Renaissance Court in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 12 | George Scharf and Owen Jones | Roman Court … Erected in the Crystal Palace | |
| Crystal Palace Guide 13 | Robert Gordon Latham and Edward Forbes | Natural History Department of the Crystal Palace Described. Part 1: Ethnology. Part 2: Zoology and Botany | 9781906267223 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 14 | Anna B. Jameson | Handbook to the Courts of Modern Sculpture | 9781906267117 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 15 | Richard Owen | Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World | 9781906267360 |
| Crystal Palace Guide 16 | Owen Jones | Apology for the Colouring of the Greek Court in the Crystal Palace | |
| [no author identified] | Industrial Directory of the Crystal Palace | ||
| advertised but not published | Raffaele Monti | How to See the Sculpture in the Crystal Palace |
The Crystal Palace Company published a Guide to Crystal Palace and Park nearly every year in the first few decades after opening their attraction in Sydenham. These guides described main attractions – especially new additions More…
Richard Owen’s original guide to the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and displayed in Crystal Palace Park, Sydenham, London since 1854. These life-sized sculptures of prehistoric “monsters” included dinosaurs, mammals, marine reptiles, More…
The “Natural History Court” had two organising themes. First, ethnology – a speciality in anthropology emphasising comparisons between human cultures – was a new discipline in the 1850s. Displays included material from thirteen exotic human groups More…
An inventory for the statues and sculptures displayed in the Crystal Palace and Park. It’s a celebration of modern sculpting, 17th to 19th century, with English work set alongside French, German, and Italian masters. Individual More…
Detailed description of this exhibition, together with a brief survey of architectural and design history of Byzantium and other parts of Christian Europe, including German and French Romanesque. Additional notes are provided on Irish art More…
Catalogue for the Italian Court, one of the great courts in the 1854 Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Detailed description of the exhibition’s sculpture, facades, and paintings. Wyatt and Waring give a synoptic history of the More…
The Alhambra and Romanesque Court was fantastically popular with visitors to the Crystal Palace. Author Owen Jones is the author. Special features/contents Included as appendices in the 1854 guide: Pasqual De Gayangos. An Historical Notice More…
This guide to the Portrait Gallery in Crystal Palace lists names of those chosen for display, plus biographical information. In effect, this offers a directory of those held in high esteem by mid-Victorian society. It’s More…
This visitor’s guide to Crystal Palace — including detailed descriptions and many illustrations — offers a comprehensive overview of the glasshouse and pleasure park, together with descriptions of the special courts and galleries. It also More…
Copyright 2023 Professor Joe Cain
You must be logged in to post a comment.